The Hindu : National : `Neoconservatives, an elite pressure group'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Sep 28, 2004

National

National

`Neoconservatives, an elite pressure group'

By Our Special Correspondent

— Photo: S. Thanthoni

Daniel Vernet

CHENNAI, SEPT. 27. Neoconservatives are trying to promote what they see as universal values of human rights and democracy not only in the United States but also in the rest of the world. However, while concepts of human rights could indeed be seen as universal, the same could not be said of the American concepts of democracy, according to Daniel Vernet, Diplomatic Editor of the French newspaper, Le Monde.

In an informal chat with journalists at The Hindu, Mr. Vernet said neoconservatives or neocons believed they were fighting tyranny and totalitarianism when they advocated American intervention in other parts of the world.

Although universal human rights could be codified as in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, democratic values could not be made applicable to everyone everywhere. They spoke of American values as if they were universal, he said.

Neocons, he said, numbered only about 100 from Washington to New York, but they formed a network cutting across party lines and were influential in policy-making.

Human rights

Although they did not have an electoral constituency, they constituted an elite pressure group. They raised questions relating to the fight for human rights and the importance to be given to national sovereignty and the use of force to achieve desirable ends. They were practically efficient, but ideologically loose.

Neocons were not a coherent group, and many of them would not admit to being neocons. Many of them were Jewish and Irish-Catholic, but their views had little to do with religion. They were not anti-Muslim and their alliance with the Christian Right was only tactical. They were formerly of the Left and were characteristically optimistic, Mr. Vernet said.

Asked if neocons had emerged from the political consensus among the Democrats and the Republicans in the United States, he said he would not say there was no ideological differentiation between the Democrats and the Republicans, but there was a political consensus on foreign policy. Even if John Kerry were to be President, he would find it difficult to withdraw the troops from Iraq. Neocons believed there were permanent interests that went beyond electoral politics. But while they might have contempt for electoral politics, they could not be said to have fascist tendencies, he said.

Economically, they were not part of the traditional Right. They were not against State intervention. Their economic policies corresponded to those of the neoliberals. In Europe Tony Blair was a classic example of the neocons, he said.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National